Changes to New Zealand Sevens squad for Adelaide tournament

The New Zealand Sevens team has made three changes to their squad for the Adelaide leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.



Sevens debutants Luke Hamilton (North Harbour) and Jeremy Cave (Otago) replace Tomasi Cama and Jordan Puletua who have been ruled out with finger ligament and hamstring injuries respectively.



Bay of Plenty’s Lance MacDonald will also join the team for the first time since 2006, replacing Victor Vito who is rejoining the Hurricanes squad in South Africa.



New Zealand Sevens Coach Gordon Tietjens said losing Cama and Puletua was a blow to the team and only added to the “miserable run of injuries” which his squad has had this season.



“Losing a senior player like Tomasi is always tough, but this is an ideal opportunity for a player like Luke Hamilton to show his stuff. He was picked as the outstanding player of the tournament at the Pub Charity National Sevens in Queenstown earlier this year and it was only due to injury that he wasn’t named in our 2009 squad, “said Tietjens.



Zar Lawrence will be rejoining the team on Thursday following his brother’s tangi in the Far North.



New Zealand kicks off the Adelaide tournament with a game against Wales on Friday night (6.36pm local time).





New Zealand’s schedule of matches (all times are local):



Friday 3 April

v Wales, 6.36pm



Saturday 4 April

v Tonga, 12.15pm

v USA, 5.48pm



Sunday 5 April

Finals Day





Squad for Adelaide tournament: Jeremy Cave (Otago), DJ Forbes (Captain, Counties Manukau), Paul Grant (Otago), Luke Hamilton (North Harbour), Nigel Hunt (Bay of Plenty), Zar Lawrence (Bay of Plenty), Lance MacDonald (Bay of Plenty), Tim Mikkelson (Waikato), Lote Raikabula (Manawatu), Julian Savea (Wellington), Ben Souness (Taranaki), Chad Tuoro (Counties Manukau).